Books: Get to Know Your Topic
Books and eBooks are a great choice when you're new to a subject, since they can provide topic overviews and background information. They don't need to be read cover-to-cover to be useful - just check the table of contents or the index to find sections that are relevant to your interests. In eBooks, you can do a search for your topic within the book.
For some short, philosophy-relevant reads, check out the Very Short Introductions database:
Search the Library Catalog
Sample Searches
| Plato AND political science |
Use AND between two or more terms to find materials with allthe concepts. Searching for Plato AND political science will only include books that have both Plato and political science in their contents.
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| ethics OR morality |
Use OR between similar concepts. Searching forethics OR morality will find books that refer to either term.
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| "Ancient Philosophy" |
Use quotation marks ( " " ) around specific phrases such as "Ancient Philosophy" to find the words in that specific order. |
eBooks (NOVA collections)
Philosophy ebooks can be found in these NOVA ebook collections (log in in with your myNOVA username and password).
- You may also be interested in eBooks that are freely available online (copyright-free and available to all).
- More information on downloading eBooks to your computer or device.
- EBSCO eBook Collection This link opens in a new window
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A collection of eBooks curated by NOVA librarians on a variety of different subjects. eBooks can be accessed in the browser or downloaded for offline use. (NVCC) - Oxford Scholarship Online eBooks This link opens in a new window
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Oxford Scholarship Online offers full-text access to scholarly works from key disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, science, medicine, and law. Select "Unlocked" and "Free" to view the full-text books. (VIVA)
eBooks (Open Web)
These websites provide access to books/works in the public domain (copyright-free and available to all). They include many classic philosophy works by Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and more.
- Bartleby.comAccess fiction, non-fiction, verse poetry, and reference works.
- Early Modern Texts"Versions of some classics of early modern philosophy, and a few from the 19th century, prepared with a view to making them easier to read while leaving intact the main arguments, doctrines, and lines of thought."
- DavidHume.org"Aims to provide a free and open access collection of almost everything written by . . . David Hume, alongside bibliographies and links to Hume scholarship on the web."
- Perseus Digital LibraryCovers the history and literature of the Greco-Roman world. English and Greek editions of works by Aristotle and Plato are among the items of interest for philosophers.